The second set of bags for the Lego Assembly Square contained a lot of pieces, and frankly, I was a bit scared!
I shouldn’t have been though, because it was a fun build. First, the people: a florist and a baker! And their respective shops. I was especially impressed with the bakery, which included a series of pieces I had previously only seen for rolling garage doors used as windows:
After this part of the set, I was really excited to see what was coming next…stay tuned!
After owning the set for over 18 months (I bought it the day it came out!), I finally got started on building the Assembly Square, the 2017 addition to the Lego modular series. What can I say…any set that has over 4,000 pieces also comes with an intimidation factor!
Part one of the instruction book (and all of the directions, six parts in total, were contained in only one giant book this time!), utilized a decent number of pieces, but I didn’t feel like I had accomplished too much by the time I was done with it. Surprisingly, there were no people to build (although there was a baby carriage!), and I just laid the groundwork for the three parts of the building and the fountain. So it didn’t look like too much when I was finished, but it was a start!
Up next…the first people, and the building of both the bakery and the flower shop!
Now that the Brick Bank is complete, our Lego Main Street has been updated:
This is how it will stay until the next modular building comes out…and then who knows what might happen!
We built section three of the Brick Bank yesterday afternoon, and after dinner last night, we decided to go ahead and finish it.
No minifigs this time, but there was a really cool Lego chandelier…I love all the different ways Lego has found to build really cool light fixtures!
There were a lot of pieces in this part of the build, but the final product was small…the top of the second floor and the roof:
All the small pieces made for some really cool details:
Including another awesome Lego skylight:
And the secret entrance to the vault below…yes, the set even came with robber’s apparel!
It really is just like I dreamed it!
Now that we’ve finished the Brick Bank, I can’t help but wonder what the next modular building will be. There’s been something of a crime spree going on for the last few years, what with the cookie caper and now the bank heist…perhaps a police station is in order? I would also like to see a post office eventually. I do know that whatever Lego comes up with next, we’ll be adding it to our Main Street!
After taking such a long break between the first and second sets of bags for the Brick Bank, we got right back to work on set three today:
Another two minifigs, including the bank president:
There were two offices on this floor…a fancy office for the president (love the portrait hanging on his wall!), and a more simple office for a clerk:
The best part of this section of the build was the addition of the corner clock…a bank must-have, in my opinion!
Since this is a corner building housing two different businesses, the two sides look very different!
I can’t wait to finish off the rest of the building!
The Lego Brick Bank has been rather neglected with all the rearranging and redecorating we’ve been doing, but Ryan and I finally got back to work on it this afternoon!
There were two new minifigs in this section, and I love the colors and prints of their clothes!
Lego “gold” and a really big check!
We added lots of cool details, including the sign for the laundromat, some stained glass, and a secret drop between one of the washers and the bank vault:
It’s really starting to take shape:
I’m really looking forward to seeing how the rest of it comes together!
This afternoon, Ryan and I started building my dream Lego set, the Brick Bank, which I received from my children for Christmas via a gift card that they bought for just this purpose.
There’s only one instruction book, but it (and the parts bags) is split into four sections. The first set of bags wasn’t too imposing:
Only one minifig, which is highly unusual…he looks lonely!
I love the different floor designs!
We didn’t build even the whole first floor, but we got started on a lot of the important parts, including the vault and the teller counter. I also love the stacks of money!
This set is already amazing, and we’re only a quarter of the way through it…I can’t wait to see how the rest of it comes together!
Yes, you read that correctly…the announcement of a new Lego set brought me to tears.
It’s no secret that Ryan and I are huge fans of all things Lego, and it’s not just because all five of our children love them. It’s not even because they’re such high quality toys. It’s because we love building Lego sets ourselves!
We’ve built quite a few things together over the years, and our favorites are always the Lego modular buildings. It’s been so much fun to see what new buildings are added to the collection, and we love stringing out the building process of each for three or four nights, to get the most enjoyment out of it. And once they’re built, they go in a place of pride in the entry room of our home…anyone who walks in our front door can see how important Lego is to us!
It’s also no secret that I’ve longed for Lego to add a bank to this series. I’ve talked about it several times, and I’ve been specific…I was dreaming of a corner bank, and not just any bank…it needed to be complete with a clock on the corner, like many old bank buildings you see across America.
On Sunday, just before we went into church, I happened to be scrolling through Twitter, and I saw that Lego had announced the one set I had been dreaming of…a corner bank, complete with clock. I couldn’t believe it! And, yes, I actually started crying. It sounds ridiculous, I know, but when you’ve been hoping and dreaming for something specific for years, even when that something is generally regarded as a child’s toy, and you see it become a reality, and it’s just like you dreamed it, it’s hard not to get emotional!
It may sound silly, but I love watching our Lego Main Street grow and change.
It all started with the Grand Emporium. I wanted this particular building just because I liked how it looked so much…I had no intention of buying any others.
But then the new Parisian Restaurant came out, and Ryan really loved the way it looked, so I got it for him for his birthday. Why shouldn’t we each have a building we loved on display?
We had so much fun building those two together that I started really looking at the rest of the modulars. The Pet Shop caught my eye because the two halves of the building can be separated, which makes the street look more interesting.
At that point, I knew we were really in it, and I began to look forward to rumors of new sets. There were still a few older sets we didn’t have, and we added the Palace Cinema next.
When we heard last year that the Town Hall was being discontinued, we decided that would make a great Christmas present for each other…
And finally, the Detective’s Office was released this year, and with the addition of that to our street, we also rearranged the other buildings a bit.
Along the way, we’ve added some mini, free with purchase sets (like the flower cart) to make the streetscape even busier. Sadly, we missed out on the first buildings that came out, like the Fire Brigade and the Green Grocer, but we look forward to adding a new building every time Lego releases one. (I won’t be happy until they make a corner bank, though!)
Now that everyone is back in school, Labor Day has come and gone, all of our regular activities have started up again, and Ryan’s sabbatical is over, I guess summer has really ended. But what a summer it has been!
We kicked off our summer at the end of May by going to the Lantern Festival at the Missouri Botanical Garden.
Turkey played in his sixth season of parks and rec baseball…or tried to. We had so much rain in the first half of the summer (including a tropical depression that made it to the St. Louis area), that almost half of his games were cancelled, which was a huge disappointment.
We visited the St, Louis Zoo to see Kali, the zoo’s new polar bear. We were impressed not only with the bear, but with the new exhibit, Polar Bear Point.
The four oldest children attended a week-long choir camp at one of our sister congregations in the city of St. Louis. They had a great time learning about music, got to go on a few field trips, and decided that they want to join the Kantorei at Hope. Chickadee had a fun time that week having me all to herself!
Tim Horton’s finally opened a store in St. Louis, and we were there on opening day! (This was also the week that Ryan’s sabbatical began!)
This summer in school, we learned about Illinois state history. We went to Cahokia Mounds on the first of our summer school field trips. We’ve been there several times, but there is always something new to learn!
July was the busiest month of the summer. We started with our traditional, Markel family Fourth of July celebration, which is always lots of fun.
Bunny went to Camp Wartburg for a week of theatre camp. We missed her at home, but she had a great time!
The week after she got home, Bunny celebrated her 11th birthday. The celebration included a trip to the spray park and a bunny cake, of course!
AÂ few days after that, we left on our first-ever Markel family summer vacation/road trip. We visited Bowling Green, KY, Atlanta, GA, and our main destination of Charleston, SC. Even though there were a few bumps along the way, it was more fun than I could have imagined, and we covered all the vacation bases–family, food, baseball, history, architecture, and the beach!
Back home, the girls and I went with Grandma to American Girl Night at Busch Stadium.
We also drove to Kaskaskia, IL, to see the location of the first Illinois state capital and the Liberty Bell of the West.
August saw a bit more road-tripping. First, a drive to Vandalia, IL, to tour the oldest existing Capitol Building in Illinois.
We also drove to Springfield, IL, to visit the Lincoln Home, the Old State Capitol, and the current Capitol Building, as well as a few other locations.
Moose went back to school…he’s in the fourth grade this year! Still not ready to say goodbye to summer, though…
Turkey, Bunny, and Ladybug also went back to school. Since Ryan was still on sabbatical, though, I still wasn’t convinced that summer was done.
We had a fun time taking Little Luther with us on all of our travels!
Ryan and I even found time to build not one, but two Lego modular buildings!
Moose got to miss a day of school for our field trip to The Magic House, where we learned what life is like in China, and did a lot of other fun things, too.
That same day (and the day after), we also drove down to Carbondale for a college women’s volleyball tournament.
And just last week, we celebrated the historic reign of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II with a tea party!
We traveled this summer…a lot. We visited not only spray parks, but pools and the beach, as well.
Most of all, though, we spent a ton of time together as a family, creating memories that I hope will last several lifetimes! It was a more amazing summer than I could have imagined, and I’ll never forget it!